GreaterGood Blog: News and information at The Veterans Site

Gifts to Mercy Corps top $100,000 for Japan relief efforts

Apr 7, 2011by Rosemary Jones

Visitors to The GreaterGood Network of websites contributed more than $100,000 in March to Mercy Corps' rescue efforts in Japan—and those contributions were delivered to Mercy Corps within days of collection.

"At The GreaterGood Network, we offer an unique service called the Gifts That Give More™ program. This program allows online donors to give money with confidence to organizations who have confirmed to us their presence on the ground, helping survivors in the most immediate ways," said Lisa Halstead, board president of GreaterGood.org. "Besides disbursing emergency funds weekly to give the first responders the flexibility and the support that they need when aiding survivors in a crisis, we work with established charities, many who have been our partners for years in projects related to such causes as hunger relief and aid for victims of war and natural or manmade disasters."

Halstead also pointed out that The GreaterGood Network’s five million unique monthly visitors are largely consumers, who come to the popular "Click To Give" suite of websites to click a homepage button to trigger a donation from a sponsoring advertiser or shop in the related GreaterGood website stores (all purchases from the stores also create donations for charities). In times of disaster, they look to The GreaterGood Network for information about the best ways to help.

GreaterGood.org's unique Gifts That Give More™ program allows 100% tax-deductible contributions to be directed to nonprofit causes or projects selected by the donors. With typical donation levels of $10 to $100 per Gift, the program has generated millions of dollars for more than 80 charities worldwide since its inception. In particular, the program has allowed visitors to The GreaterGood Network websites to quickly provide assistance to survivors during such disasters as the Haiti earthquake, the Pakistan floods, and others.

After putting out the call to donors on March 11 following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, GreaterGood.org was able to send $83,705 to Mercy Corps on March 21, followed by a donation of $22,600 on March 28. A total of $106,305 has been distributed in less than 18 days after the earthquake struck.

The Portland-based global humanitarian agency is partnering with Peace Winds in Japan to deliver shelter, food, and other emergency supplies to the survivors of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

"We are so grateful for the support we’ve received from The GreaterGood Network," said Jeremy Barnicle, chief development officer for Mercy Corps. "This generous donation allows us to continue providing survivors of this terrible disaster with emergency assistance and to enable those most directly affected to begin rebuilding their lives."

Mercy Corps has been a longtime charitable partner of GreaterGood.org and is a beneficiary of The GreatGood website The Hunger Site, where website visitors can click for free on The Hunger Site’s yellow button to generate donations to the group (donations are paid by sponsoring advertisers and 100% of these donations are transferred to charitable partners by GreaterGood.org).

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